U3A1 Web Tutorial

Complete your 10-page Web tutorial from Unit 2 using Dreamweaver and post it to your Web site.

DemocracyHistoryBrief1.htm --- Richard

Reference:

Comparative Government. http://www.ex.ac.uk/politics/pol_data/compgov/lectures.htm retrieved on October 25, 2004.

U3A2 Your website link

Submit and publish the URL/link address of your website in the submission text box. Add any comments regarding your site.

My URL was http://vle1.capella.edu/125836 --- Richard

U3A3 Multi-choice interaction

Using CourseBuilder, create a simple multiple-choice interaction and put it on your Web site. Integrate this into your tutorial from Unit 2, upload to your Web site, and provide a link from your main page on your Web site.

The multiple-choice interaction is found at the URL below:

DemocracyHistoryBrief.htm

U3D1 tips and suggestions

Prepare a referenced response for this question: What tips and suggestions have you gathered from the readings that will be helpful for you when designing instructional media? Address these specific problems: 1. managing cognitive load and 2. managing attention.

In a learning situation a teacher should optimize the students' attention capacity by managing the learning environment (including the physical comfort level), avoiding student fatigue and boredom, and promoting participation by having learners complete interactive tasks, asking questions to individual students, maintaining eye contact, and using an energetic instructional pace to stimulate interest by the students.

Divided attention is when the student attends to more than one information source at a time whereas selective attention involves attention to one source at a time. Methods to affect selective attention include asking relevant questions before, during, and after reading (this is best when used with mature learners), establishing learning objectives, and utilizing signals within written and spoken information to guide the learner and reinforce learning.

Methods to use to avoid creating divided attention include using contiguity (such as placing labels and descriptive words close to the visuals that they are describing), making information readily available within the text or in pop-up screens, making feedback areas in e-learning close to the learner's response field, synthesizing information that should be placed on flip charts and screens, and minimizing distractions.

In maximizing attention capacity, factors to consider include the effectiveness of the instructional material used and the learning environment; the learner's knowledge, goals, and skills; and learning tasks for the students to use ( Clark , 2003). Other factors to consider include sustaining the student's interest to avoid boredom, age (it is well known that the younger the student, the shorter the attention span), regional location, abilities and disabilities, talents, interests, aptitudes, concentration ability, intelligence, emotional maturity, health, use of senses (especially seeing and hearing), cultural and economic background, and personality. Also important to consider are the instructional techniques used while instructing the students in addition to the availability and level of technology and learning material. --- Richard

Reference:

Clark, Ruth. (2003). Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement. Silver Spring , MD : International Society for Performance Improvement.

Response from Kathleen:

Richard, good points on understanding anc consider the students age, abilities and disabilities, cultural background when designing instructional materials to hold the students attention. ---Kathleen

Response from Mark Karadimos:

"In a learning situation a teacher should optimize the students' attention capacity by managing the learning environment (including the physical comfort level), avoiding student fatigue and boredom, and promoting participation by having learners complete interactive tasks, asking questions to individual students, maintaining eye contact, and using an energetic instructional pace to stimulate interest by the students."

As an instructor, I have found tempo to be very important. Controlling it is vital for managing comfort levels and a healthy learning environment. There are students who try to negatively control tempo and how we deal with them is very crucial for the fate of an entire class. Students who like to use distractions or off topic comments/questions want to sloww learning. Students who answer questions without raising a hand and waiting for others to think want to accelerate learning. Good teachers have to control tempo to be effective.

Response from Patricia Lake :

The same types of things happen in a training environment in a business setting. A skilled trainer/instructor can balance the needs of the many with the interruptions of the few. The challenge of maintaining appropriate tempo - and adhering to the schedule - is often difficult to manage when legitimate questions slow down the pace of the lesson. --- Patricia

Response to my posting from Tim O'Connor:

Mark, You raise an important point about managing the learners in your class in order to control the tempo of a lesson. While you can have some student who want to go off on a tangent to get off a topic they don't enjoy, you can also have students who want to go off on a tangent because they see a connection that others may not. Finding the source of that tangent is an important part as well. I think that can be one of the hardest parts of teaching and I don't think it is something that you learn in a classroom but by your experience in front of a class. While I feel comfortable with this with students face to face, I wonder how to manage that tempo in a distance education environment. --- Tim

Tim:I think that we have a real up hill battle with maintaining audience attention. As anyone can see by the way TV changes the environment from entertainment to advertising every 7 to 10 minutes. We too must integrate change into our classroom or training sessions. I try to engage my students with questions every few minutes, visual programming examples using powerpoint or the whiteboard and hands-on exercises. --- John

Comment to John:

I remember reading somewhere that an effective one minute commercial should have many scene changes (the figure might have been up to 20 or 30). Just look at the way the MTV commercials and music videos constantly and rapidly change in order to hold the attention of the viewers. --- Richard

U3D2 Using HTML to design instructional sites

Based on your examination of Dreamweaver with CourseBuilder and the interactive exercise you created, discuss the value of using HTML as the background environment for designing instructional sites. What limitations does this impose? How flexible is CourseBuilder in allowing you to create the mbelenkkinteractions that fit your design?

HTML code can be written to achieve many effects but the author of the webpages would need to be familiar with all of the terminology and techniques to achieve the effects. This is where the authoring tools like Dreamweaver are helpful to the non-programmer since HTML code is written automatically as the designer of a page is designing in the design mode. In Dreamweaver and other authoring tools, what can not be done in Dreamweaver very often can be inserted or imported into Dreamweaver through plug-ins or external programs. Flash, CourseBuilder, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, and other graphics software programs can be imported into Dreamweaver to create a wide ranging variety of effects including interactive elements such as dynamic and input text and multimedia effects such as video, animation, and sound. ---Richard

Response from Adrienne Martin:

I agree with you there are several graphic software programs are available to create a wide range of effects to enhance the course room and create a truly interactive environment for the WBT learner. --- Adrienne.